Rowland White (died 1572) was a sixteenth-century Irish writer and political and religious reformer, whose writings had considerable influence in his own lifetime.
He was the second son of Patrick White, Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland).[1] His mother was Patrick's second wife Alison St. Lawrence, daughter of Nicholas St Lawrence, 4th Baron Howth and his third wife Alison Fitzsimon, and widow of John Netterville of Dowth.[1] He was probably born at Flemington, near Navan, County Meath, where his father had his main residence, although the Whites also had a long-standing claim, which Rowland later revived, to the barony of Dufferin in County Down.[2] Little is known of his early life. By the 1540s he was a flourishing merchant with his main centre of business in Dublin.
Merchant
He married Catherine Rawson, natural daughter of John Rawson, 1st Viscount Clontarf, former Prior of Kilmainham and a close political associate of his father, by an unknown mother (Rawson, though he was in holy orders, evidently did not take his vow of celibacy seriously and had several children out of wedlock).[1] The marriage is said to have brought Rowland considerable wealth, and substantial assets at home and in Flanders, Spain and Germany. On a business trip to Flanders, he met the leading financier Sir Thomas Gresham, who sponsored him for membership of the London Mercers Company. However, in his own words, "fortune brought me down by the seas and otherways". Rowland suffered heavy financial losses, and he was imprisoned for debt in Ludgatedebtors' prison for 3 years.[3] On his release he returned to Ireland and successfully renewed the family claim to Dufferin. He was living there by 1570, after the heirs of his elder brother Nicholas, who died in 1566, ceded their claims to him [2] (his father had died in 1561).[1] Dufferin is centred on the town of Killyleagh.[3]
In 1571 he was exploring the possibility of mining on Lambay Island off the coast of North County Dublin, no doubt with the encouragement of John Challoner, the owner, who attempted to develop gold and silver mines on Lambay.
Killyleagh Castle, from the gatehouse: the Castle was built by the Hamilton family after they bought Dufferin from Rowland White's son John about 1606
Reformer
He had a keen interest in political reform, and in the 1560s he wrote three treatises on the governance of Ireland, all of which are now lost. His treatises aroused the favourable interest of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, chief minister to Elizabeth I, who invited him to England to discuss them.[4] Rowland was unable to travel, but was encouraged to write two further works between 1569 and 1571, A Discors (discourse) Touching Ireland and The Disorders of the Irishry.[3] He was invited to England to meet Cecil again: apparently he did not do so, but he renewed his friendship with Gresham and made the acquaintance of Sir Thomas Smith, the Secretary of State, who had a keen interest in the colonisation of Ireland, and had recently made an unsuccessful attempt to settle the Ards peninsula.
Death and legacy
Rowland died of bubonic plague in England in September 1572.[3] He had several children by his wife Catherine Rawson, including John, the eldest son, who was placed under Sir Thomas Smith's guardianship. John retained possession of Dufferin until he sold it to the Hamilton family of Clandeboye in about 1606. The Hamiltons subsequently built Killyleagh Castle in its present form.[2]
Writings
Rowland, son of a Catholic father, was a convert to the Protestant faith, and a sincere if unorthodox religious reformer, who was in disfavour with the ardently Roman CatholicQueen Mary I as a result. He believed that the Protestant faith was not a recent import to Ireland, but on the contrary that it represented Christianity in its pure and original state before it became corrupted by Catholic doctrine. Such views were not shared even by most Irish Protestants and were anathema to the devoutly Catholic Queen.
His political treatises are written from the point of view of the English colonist. He regarded Gaelic civilisation as barbarous, and the people living in a state of wretched poverty, "with nothing left to cherish or care for", although he thought the Irish people would become good citizens if they were governed properly.[4] Good government was the key to his programme of reform, including the introduction of the common law to the whole of Ireland: hitherto, he wrote rather obscurely, the Irish, having lacked the benefits of a proper system of law could not "live lawfully". Like nearly all the Anglo-Irish gentry, he objected strongly to the cess, the tax imposed on the towns for the upkeep of military garrisons, and drew the wider lesson that Ireland could not flourish under military rule. He also believed that the cooperation of his own class was essential to any programme of reform.[4] His complaints about undue exactions and excessive interference by local officials reflect his personal quarrel with William Piers, the Governor and Constable of Carrickfergus.
Rowland has been dismissed in modern times as an unscrupulous adventurer,[3] but his writings had considerable influence in his own time.
Sources
Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 London John Murray 1926
Barry, Judy "White, Rowland" Cambridge Dictionary of Irish Biography 2009
Hower, Jessica S. Tudor Empire: The Making of Early Modern Britain and the British Atlantic World, 1485-1603 Palgrave Macmillan 2020
County Down is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of 961 sq mi (2,490 km2) and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the north, the Irish Sea to the east, County Armagh to the west, and County Louth across Carlingford Lough to the southwest.
Anglo-Irish people denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until 1871, or to a lesser extent one of the English dissenting churches, such as the Methodist church, though some were Roman Catholics. They often defined themselves as simply "British", and less frequently "Anglo-Irish", "Irish" or "English". Many became eminent as administrators in the British Empire and as senior army and naval officers since the Kingdom of England and Great Britain were in a real union with the Kingdom of Ireland for over a century, before politically uniting into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.
Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava,, was a British public servant and prominent member of Victorian society. In his youth he was a popular figure in the court of Queen Victoria, and became well known to the public after publishing a best-selling account of his travels in the North Atlantic.
Killyleagh is a village and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the A22 road between Belfast and Downpatrick, on the western side of Strangford Lough. It had a population of 2,787 people in the 2021 Census. It is best known for its twelfth century Killyleagh Castle. Killyleagh lies within the Newry, Mourne and Down district.
William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, styled Lord St John between 1539 and 1550 and Earl of Wiltshire between 1550 and 1551, was an English Lord High Treasurer, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and statesman.
Baron Dufferin and Claneboye, of Ballyleidy and Killyleagh in County Down, Northern Ireland, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 30 July 1800 for Dame Dorcas Blackwood, widow of Sir John Blackwood, 2nd Baronet, Member of the Irish Parliament for Killyleagh and Bangor, in return for support for the Union of Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Terence John Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 2nd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava DL JP, styled Lord Terence Blackwood between 1888 and 1900 and Earl of Ava between 1900 and 1902, was a British diplomat.
John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare PC (Ire) was Attorney-General for Ireland from 1783 to 1789 and Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1789 to 1802.
Ballygowan is a village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is within the Ards and North Down Borough. The town of Comber is a short distance to the north-east, the town of Saintfield to the south, and the city of Belfast further to the north-west. It is within the civil parishes of Killinchy and Comber and is split between the historic baronies of Castlereagh Lower and Castlereagh Upper. It had a population of 3,138 people in the 2021 Census.
Killyleagh Castle is a castle in the village of Killyleagh, County Down, Northern Ireland. It is believed to be amongst one of the oldest inhabited castles in the country, with parts dating back to 1180. It follows the architectural style of a Loire Valley château, being redesigned by the architect Sir Charles Lanyon in the mid-19th century. It has been owned by the Hamilton family since the early 17th century.
Hariot Georgina Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, was a British aristocrat and Vicereine of India, known for her success in the role of "diplomatic wife," and for leading an initiative to improve medical care for women in British India.
Sheridan Frederick Terence Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 5th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava was a British patron of the arts. Less formally, he was usually called Sheridan Dufferin.
Sir John Blackwood, 2nd Baronet was an Irish politician and baronet.
James Stevenson Blackwood, 2nd Baron Dufferin and Claneboye, styled as Sir James Blackwood, 3rd Baronet, from 1799 to 1807, was an Anglo-Irish peer and politician.
Hans Blackwood, 3rd Baron Dufferin and Claneboye, styled The Honourable Hans Blackwood between 1800 and 1836, was an Irish peer and politician.
Dorcas Blackwood, 1st Baroness Dufferin and Claneboye was the eldest daughter and co-heir of James Stevenson, of Killyleagh, County Down, and his wife Ann, née Price, daughter of General Nicholas Price. Her paternal grandparents were Hans Stevenson and his wife Anne, née Hamilton. Her grandmother was the second daughter and eventually sole heiress of James Hamilton of Neilsbrook, County Antrim. Her great-grandfather was the son of Archibald Hamilton, the next brother of James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Claneboye. Her great-grandfather became the sole heir of Viscount Claneboye when the 1st Viscount's grandson, Henry Hamilton, 3rd Viscount Claneboye, Baron Hamilton, and 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil, died in 1675 with no sons.
James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Claneboye was a Scot who became owner of large tracts of land in County Down, Ireland, and founded a successful Protestant Scots settlement there several years before the Plantation of Ulster. Hamilton was able to acquire the lands as a result of his connections with King James I, for whom he had been an agent in negotiations for James to succeed Queen Elizabeth I.
Dufferin is a historic barony in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the southern half of the west shore of Strangford Lough, and is bordered by three other baronies: Castlereagh Lower to the north; Castlereagh Upper to the west; and Lecale Lower to the south.
John Rawson, 1st and only Viscount Clontarf was an English-born statesman in sixteenth-century Ireland, and was regarded as one of the mainstays of English rule in the Kingdom of Ireland. He was the last Prior of the Kilmainham house of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. The Knights Hospitaller, as they were usually known, were a fighting order of monks, and Rawson himself was an experienced soldier who took part in the Siege of Rhodes (1522).
Sir Patrick White was an Irish politician, landowner and judge, who was notable for his forty-year tenure on the Irish Bench, much of which was spent as second Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland). He founded a dynasty who were Lords of the Manor of Dufferin, County Down, for several generations, although they were forced to abandon Dufferin for some years due to local disturbances. His younger son Rowland was a writer on political issues who had considerable influence in his own time.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
